Albendazole

[Donya]

Probably a strange question but I thought I'd ask anyway - has anyone here used albendazole and/or related anti-fluke chemicals in edible form on tanks containing marine inverts other than snails? The reason I ask is that there are some local snail species I'd like to set up a study tank for, but they are potential carriers of flukes and other worms. If it's still a big uncertainty I plan on setting up a QT tub with just the snails and nothing else, although that will be a bit tedious. I know fish handle the meds ok, so it's primarily crustaceans I'm wondering about.

 

[Crazy fishes]

As John Hunter like to stress Don't think, Experiment!!!! I should imagine that you can probably do it but it would require titrating the dose. Why are you so worried about the fluke anyway?? If you do experiment let us know how you get on best of luck

Regards

 

[Donya]

The Albendazole would have to be in edible form, not something I could easily experiment with using a concentration. Ut would be useless against internal flukes that way anyway unless pretty directly ingested. So, if I experimented it would be sort of all or nothing if something ate some of the flakes. If there were animals that ate a bunch of it and shouldn't have...well... I may see if I can get some skuds or something to experiment on first; I don't think I want to risk instant death on the hermits and other beasteies from the area unless they really need the deworming (or if there's something else to go on to assume that they would handle the treatment).

The flukes concern me for two reasons, neither of which is a particularly serious one as far as humans go. I have pretty sever algeric reactions to some odd things, certain insect bites being included, and the fluke larvae can cause bad alergic reactions similar to insect bites. It's not like it would kill me, but I'd rather avoid having my arms covered in rash if I react to it. The bigger concern for me is exposure of other snails to the parasites, since I haven't seen solid documentation on exactly which snail species can/can't host the parasite. The parasites aren't always a big problem for the host, but in some cases it can result in pretty sickly snails. If the potential carriers are "clean" as far as all worms go, I won't have to worry about accidental water contamination, etc.

As it happened, I ended up having to set up a QT tank for them anyway since it turned out to be fairly difficult to get them to show any interest in the food with the meds. I have to isolate them with a big flake of it and wait until they eventualy give up looking for places to burrow and eat it. Given a choice between stinky food they don't like and resting until better food might come along, they rest lol.

 

[Crazy fishes]

The snails are the flukes natural host so they won't generally cause any harm to the snails. What do you mean by albendazole in edible form? Do you mean like tablets? If so you should be able to crush the tablets and dissolve them into RO water. Experimentation is always possible you need to think laterally....

Regards

 

[Donya]

I've read conflicting documentation on how these flukes leave the host's body. A related freshwater species of fluke I had to deal with in the past would move from the snail's digestive tract to tissue elsewhere in the body and form cysts that would rupture (releasing larvae) and leave the snail prone to infection. The primary species that caries the fluke is so hardy it would probably not have much of a problem, but less hardy species might not fare so well if put through the same thing. Elimination of the parasites while they're still resident in the snail's digestive tract is easiest and can only take a few days.

The chemical I have currently is in flake food form, intended for use with wild-caught fish that requrire deworming prior to introduction into the aquarium. I may be able to get a hold of it in liquid form from a vet since they use it in other forms for deworming larger animals (dogs and cats mainly I think). The flakes I have right now would make a pretty difficult to use solution if I was able to dissolve them well. If I got the liquid form, I would assume that if exposure in the water didn't kill a crustacean that it would probably not be lethal in ingestable form, so I'll see if I can get some in a form where I can better determine the concentration. The flake food would also cause me some trouble determining concentration since I don't have a working scale right now.